FINAL INFORMATION Physics 9HC spring 2012

The final will be 1-3 pm, Wednesday, June 13 in 140 Physics. 
Closed book. Two 3"x5" note cards. 
Bring a calculator and a law bluebook. It is OK to re-use your midterm 
bluebook.

It will cover all of the quantum mechanics we have done this quarter.
However, there will be an emphasis on the material since the midterm.
There will not be any questions exclusively about classical waves.
However, as you have seen by now, in order to understand the behavior of
quantum interference, it is necessary to understand interference of
classical waves. Thus some aspects of classical waves might appear in 
the problems.

I will be available for pre-final discussion from 4-6 pm, Tuesday,
June 12 in 432 Physics. I will not be doing the Monday 5:30 pm problem session.

You may _not_ use your fancy calculator to store information relevant
to the exam. If any physical constants are needed, I will supply them.

There will be problem solving and some questions asking you to explain
the physics at work in some situation, e.g. "Why"  or "Explain your
answer" questions. 

General comment: In preparing for physics exams, it is *not* a good
strategy to try to have a different ready formula for every problem that
might appear. This is not the way that physicists think about physics,
and it is a physicist writing the exam. Physicists like the idea of
using a very small number of general principles, concepts, and laws to
solve a large number of problems. When the fundamentals are understood,
many different kinds of problems can be solved. So you can expect
problems that use the physical principles you have learned, but do not
expect that the problems will be just like ones that you have already
done. The idea is not to know a lot of little things, but rather
to know a few important things very well so that you can get everything
else from those. That is the "way" of physics.

"It's the superposition principle."